Many Hispanic children are not learning to read and write.
Almost half do not graduate from high school or are below grade level. At
best, the lack of education condemns people to a life of menial jobs and
poverty. It can also sentence them to a life of welfare, unemployment, or
crime. What can we do to correct the situation? Read “The Dropouts,” first in
a series.

The above dialogue comes from Los Desertores (The Dropouts), a
bilingual musical written by Puerto Rican playwright Radamés Gavé about
Latino high-school students. Gavé wrote much more than a play about Latinos
dropping out. The play is art imitating Latino student reality across the United States. It is a haunting
refrain of the plight Hispanic students face in schools all across the
country.

Many Hispanic children are not learning to read and write.
Almost half do not graduate from high school or are below grade level. At
best, the lack of education condemns people to a life of menial jobs and
poverty. It can also sentence them to a life of welfare, unemployment, or
crime.

Statistics from the U.S. Department of Education tell the story.
Thirty-seven percent of Hispanics do not finish high school, compared to 15
percent of the national average. The percentage of Hispanic teens who drop
out of high school is and has been higher than that of African Americans and
Caucasians each and every year for the last three decades. Even among those
Hispanics who remain in high school, 34 percent are below grade level.

People who deal with children and educational issues
everyday—the true experts—agree: The status of education for Hispanics in
this country is in a state of crisis!

It will get worse before it gets better. The U.S. Census Bureau
expects the number of Hispanics to almost double from 35 million to 63
million by 2030. Hispanics will make up 25 percent of the kindergarten–12th
grade population by 2025. The economic consequences of poorly educated
students are staggering for the country as a whole. Education should be a
national priority, more so for Hispanics who are lagging the national
average.

The process of improving educational standards begins with
Hispanic parents. Those who do not care must be taught the importance of a
good education. Those who lack the resources must be empowered to address
their children’s needs. Politicians must accept reality and provide the
resources to address our community’s greatest need—the education of our
children.

The lesson for Hispanic parents and the nation is clear. The
modern economy requires a well-educated labor force. If children are not well
educated, where will companies find their productive employees tomorrow?

The Hispanic Scholarship Fund, a non-profit organization, has
the admirable goal of raising the percentage of Hispanics who have a college
degree from 9 to 18 percent of all U.S. Hispanics. Not only is the Fund
challenged to raise funds, it must also hope that students graduate from high
school. The Fund, in conjunction with Rand, one of the most influential think
tanks in the country, conducted a study that analyzed the economic impact of
Hispanics’ lack of education.

The analysis found that if the nation were to invest one dollar
toward having Hispanics receive a college degree, the return on investment
would be 4:1. This means that the benefit of having college-educated
Hispanics in higher-paying jobs available only to college graduates would
represent higher taxes, contributions to social security, and disposable
income that Hispanics would be able to plow back into the economy. According
to Sara Martínez Tucker, president and CEO of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund,
many of her funders come to her and say, “If only Hispanics valued education
like Asians.” She strongly disagrees: “We do, but [Hispanic] families also
have other needs.”

“The stories from Los Desertores are based on real lives,”
explains Manuel A. Morán, executive and artistic director of the Society of
the Educational Arts (www.sea-ny.org). He says that Los Desertores poignantly
conveys the message: when kids drop out of high school, they are dropping out
of mainstream society. The story is much the same throughout the country.

The Dropouts

Usually,
before students drop out, they start skipping classes, an obvious sign that
they are at risk. Municipal Judge Ernest Aliseda, who hears truancy cases in
the border town of McAllen, Texas, recites a litany of reasons why children skip classes
and eventually drop out of school. He disguises the names of students who
have come before him, but the cases are all too real. “María skipped class to
go eat off campus. Juan did not do his homework in one or several classes and
does not want to show up unprepared,” he says. “Sergio has to work at night
and often does not wake up in time for first period. Clara’s parents are
fighting all the time and are getting a divorce. Pedro’s parents use drugs
and so does he. He is too stoned to go to class, and they are too drugged to
know if he goes to school.”
Once students miss classes, they begin to fall behind. Falling behind leads them
to miss more classes and soon they drop out. The results are disastrous. They
are faced with a life of:
• functional illiteracy;
• significantly lower earnings ;
• double the rate of unemployment than for graduates;
• four times the likelihood of ending up on welfare than for high school
graduates; and
• being at higher risk of becoming a criminal. Fifty percent of state prison
inmates are high-school dropouts.

Understanding
the Causes

One
cannot ignore economic reality. Almost 40 percent of Hispanic children are
raised in families that are below the poverty line, a rate twice as high as
that of Caucasian children.

Language
proficiency is also a problem. Many immigrants to the U.S. are illiterate in Spanish, which
makes learning English a daunting task. The problem turns into a vicious
cycle.

“Uneducated
parents are not in a good position to know what the best education for their
kids should be despite the fact that they want a good education for their
children,” says Mr. Ronald Blackburn-Moreno, president and CEO of ASPIRA
Association, Inc, an organization dedicated to helping Hispanic students.

He adds
that Latino children who enter school speaking only Spanish have the “double
task of learning to speak and read English. Once students are in elementary,
even in middle school, their inability to read causes them to drop out.”

The
problem starts before children enter formal education programs. Latino
children are seldom placed in pre-school programs. Head Start covers only
one-third of children eligible nationwide. “This is especially a problem in
inner city and immigrant areas,” says Blackbrun-Moreno. Less than 15 percent
of all Hispanic American children participate in pre-school programs.
Children who do not participate are already behind by the time they enter
kindergarten. It is very difficult for them to ever catch up.

The fact
that most Hispanic children are crammed into schools with few resources seals
their fate. According to Charles García, chairman and CEO of My Sterling and
a presidential appointee to the President’s Commission on Educational
Excellence for Hispanic Americans, “there are low expectations by school
personnel, ill-prepared teachers and administrators, limited coordination
among schools, parents and communities on behalf of students, and tracking
into non-academic fields.” García also believes that “the active
participation of parents in the education of their children is not
facilitated, and the educational assessments, often in the form of tests in
English, are incorrectly used to make decisions that negatively impact the
student.” It all conspires “to discriminate against Hispanic children!”

“With all
these problems students are often bored, unhappy, and feel isolated in
school,” says García. “I will never forget when my little sister told me,
‘What is the point of going to school? It is a white man’s world anyway.’
Edgar’s song in Los Desertores brought back memories of her lament.”

How do we
even try to solve this enormous problem? The need to provide Hispanics with a
better education needs serious national attention. Leslie Sánchez, executive
director of the White House on Initiative on Educational Excellence for
Hispanic Education believes that President Bush has focused on the problem.
The President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic
Americans has as its goal “to ensure progress is made in closing the academic
achievement gap for Hispanic students. By raising expectations for Hispanic
families and providing the tools needed to increase their educational
attainment, we hope to achieve this goal.”

Work at a
grassroots level, however, is more critical. Domestic and foreign non-profit
organizations have tackled the task of improving education amongst Hispanics.
ASPIRA has literacy and other educational programs for immigrants, adults and
children, and in Puerto
Rico it also has
pre-school programs.

The
Mexican Cultural Institute of Houston has launched a Hispanic Literacy Task
Force with a mission to improve the education provided to Hispanic students
in Texas. According to program director
José-Pablo Fernández, the task force is especially interested in “raising the
educational levels, literacy, and second language skills” among Hispanics.

Some
private-sector firms realize they cannot afford to ignore the educational
plight of the fastest-growing segment of the national workforce. Procter
& Gamble addresses the issue by distributing a U.S. Department of
Education video titled Vamos Juntos a la Escuela that looks at four areas:
parent involvement, readiness to learn, reading and mathematics, and
preparing young children for college.

Spanish
language television networks Univisión and Telemundo also help. They have
conducted a broad-based television campaign of public service announcements
titled Education Matters. All public service announcements displayed the U.S.
Department of Education 800 number so that viewers could request Spanish
language publications in the areas of reading, math, college access, and
parent involvement. García also highlights the efforts of the Mott Foundation
and the Macarthur Foundation, which have made extraordinary investments in
after-school programs for Hispanic Americans.

Extremely
important, programs must target parents concurrently with children. Fernández
always tells parents: “Keep your children motivated to study and read to them
starting at the earliest date possible. Parents are the key to the
educational success of Hispanic children.” Sánchez agrees: “Parents must
demand that their school system provide the components of quality
instruction, including qualified teachers who meet the demands of their
state.” Yet, often parents are so overwhelmed with one or two concurrent
jobs, that they don’t have the time nor the knowledge to help their children.
Children’s academic success depends on everybody. They are tomorrow. It is
imperative to enter the fray to stop the haunting motif of Los Desertores.

Ten
percent of all U.S. Latino high school graduates enrolled in institutions of
higher education during the late 1990s, enrolling at a higher rate than their
white peers and at a rate second only to their Asian peers, according to a
new report by the PewHispanicCenter. Yet despite finishing secondary
school and enrolling in college in large numbers, Latinos lag every other
population group in attaining college degrees. The following tables show
annual college enrollment levels and characteristics, from 1997 to 2000, in California, Florida, Illinois, New York, andTexas.

Part II: From the
Beginning…There Needs to be Light!By Mayra
Rodríguez Valladares

Aurora
Valladares, a south Texas mother of six, remembers trying
to raise her kids in the late 60s and 70s. “Pre-school?” she asks, her dark
eyes widening, “I did not know English. I spent all day cooking and cleaning.
Where would I find the time to find out about early education programs? How
could we afford it?”

The
experience of this petite and energetic Mexican immigrant is not one that has
improved with time. It repeats itself today among other Latino immigrant
parents, in Texas and all across the nation. Lack
of knowledge or money prevents thousands of Latino children from ever
attending early education programs.

Statistics
are staggering. Almost one in five children under the age of 5 in the United States is Latino. And one in three of
those Latinos lives under the poverty line. Teachers, experts and community
leaders agree that it is almost impossible for Latino children to break the
cycle of poverty unless their education starts at a very early age. If it
does not, they are already at risk of dropping out of school and destined for
a life of low-paying menial jobs. While efforts exist to provide children
with early education through
programs such as Head Start, the majority of Latino children often do not
enter schools until kindergarten or even first grade. By then, they are
behind their peers; more so, if they do not speak English.

Economics cannot be
ignored

According
to research by Bowling
GreenStateUniversity’s professors Jenny van Hook and Kelly Stamper Balistreri,
Hispanics in California present a clear example of what
happens to Latino children all across the country. Because “they are the
largest immigrant group and tend to be poor and to be residentially
segregated ... it is nearly impossible for school districts in Hispanic areas
not to be mostly poor, mostly minority, and mostly non-English-speaking.”
They add that these problems have led scholars in the field of education of
immigrants to argue that schools in these poor and residentially segregated
neighborhoods “produce inequality rather than equalize opportunity.” This is
particularly grave for small children. The authors found that California children who attend “low-status,
high-minority schools learn less than children who attend integrated
schools,” particularly in schools where the concentration of minority
students is prevalent.

Education has to
begin early

“At
pre-school age is when children can learn the most. They are like sponges!”
explains Sugatha Alladi, an experienced teacher of children between the ages
of 2 to 6 at a Montessori school in Somerset, New Jersey.

Ynez
Cruz, who taught kindergarten to eighth grade students for 34 years in Dade
County in Florida, contends that in kindergarten it was immediately evident
who had been to pre-school or not. “Children who went to pre-school had an
advantage,” recalls Cruz. “They came with English, had the ability to manage
pencils and paper, and were already adapted to a school environment.”

She found
that the children who had not been in pre-school programs took a long time to
adjust to being in the kindergarten. “The difference was still noticeable in
the first grade. If a child had a high IQ and had a rich learning environment
at home, then they could catch up. Most of the time, however, this does not
take place. About 75 percent of the children who had not attended pre-school
carried that disadvantage for a long time.”

According
to Early Child Initiative Foundation’s Chief Operating Officer Ana Sejeck,
“if a kid has a good caregiver who is dedicated to taking them to all sorts
of things, like libraries, music programs, and settings for children to
interact with each other, then the child will probably succeed as well as
his/her peers who have been to a pre-school program. Unfortunately, reality
is that most parents have to work and hence cannot give children structured
education and stimulus.” Consequently, “a child with no early education is
already at a disadvantage in the first grade. Parents need to understand that
children have to be read to, that they have to play with other children, be
fed properly, and they have to have health care.”

Parents’ education
and financial status are critical

The
reasons why Latino children do not attend early education programs are
numerous. “Pre-school (in Florida) is
usually not free,” Cruz says. “In DadeCounty, some of these programs can cost
$65–$100 a week. For some families, especially if they have more than one child
of pre-school age, those fees are unaffordable.” When it comes to private
school pre-school education, the cost can be prohibitive. In New York, Alicia
Meléndez, a Puerto Rican mother, paid over $8,000 a year, or $211 a week, for
her son Paulo to attend a private school for a 38 week, four hours a day
program. “Had I wanted to send him more hours,” explains Meléndez, “it would
have been even costlier.”

Significant
lack of knowledge about early education also exists. Parents often confuse
daycare centers for pre-school. “Child care is not necessarily pre-school,
and even some pre-schools are not teaching children anything,” says Alladi.
“A good pre-school in one with a solid curriculum.” Sejeck agrees. “Often
child-care centers are not accredited. In DadeCounty, there are 1,400 licensed day
care centers, but only 106 are accredited.” Sejeck explained. “I did not know
when I was putting my kids in day care, that there is a big difference
(between programs). Now I say to parents, ‘Do not just warehouse your
children in a center.’”

Cultural
issues also affect parental attitudes about such programs. Dr. Linda
Espinosa, co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research
(NIEER) in New
Brunswick, New Jersey, contends that early education
programs “need to make a concerted effort to make families comfortable;
otherwise, families feel alienated.” Word of mouth reputation is what sells
or destroys a program. “We made our program family friendly.” The program now
has a long waiting list.

According
to Espinosa, Latino families have a very difficult time “letting go of their
3-year-olds to strangers who often speak another language and come from a
different culture. Anglo middle-class families, on the other hand, accept
that kids need to go to pre-school to get socialized.” There is much to be
done to convince the parents of Hispanic children of the benefits of
pre-school programs and of the adverse consequences of a late start in
school.

Head Start makes a
good effort, but the majority of Latinos are not covered

Head
Start, a national program created in 1965, provides early education to
children under 5. Dr. Wade Horn, Director of the Administration for Children
and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, explains
that each of his department’s programs “help provide services to the most
vulnerable children. Clearly economic disadvantage causes vulnerability.
Disproportionately, Hispanic children are poor, so as a matter of course we
provide services to them.” He also stated that “in some areas we have
specific outreach (programs) for Hispanic children. In others,
we cover them through our regular programs that target lower income families
and children.”

Head
Start also runs a program for migrants, which covers 37,000. Many, if not
most of them, are Latino. Providing for migrants is a “unique challenge
because families are moving according to agricultural cycles.” Head Start has
made an effort to model some programs to try to serve these children. “One is
a program that moves with families as they move for agricultural
opportunities. The other model is one where centers (are placed) in areas
where migrant families might live.”

The
Administration for Families and Children recognizes the need to carry out
specific outreach for Hispanics. Horn states that the Administration is
involved “in public education and invariably in English and Spanish public
service announcements.” The Administration has also had Hispanic forums about
child support issues and has tried to reach out to Hispanic media. He admits,
however, that despite the Administration’s best intentions, more effort needs
to focus on reaching Latino families and children.

While the
Latinos served by Head Start constitute 30 percent of all the children in the
program, they only represent 19 percent of the 1.2 million poor Latino
children who need to be covered. This means that 80 percent of Latino
children who also cannot afford any other kind of early education programs
are not going to school until they are 5 or 6 years old, by which time their
peers have had exposure to the English language, engaging in educational
activities, and interacting with children outside their families.

Why the Music StoppedThis is the
story of Ricky, a victim of a bad neighborhood in south Texas. His story plays out in Latino
barrios across the U.S.
His story is real; the names are not. By Mayra
Rodríguez Valladares

Ricky was
a thin 13-year old kid with incredibly straight jet-black hair and very
mischievous eyes. Teresa remembers him “as a C student the whole time he was
in junior high.” Yet, Ricky was also a very good clarinet player. He would
sit on the gravel in front of a neighbor’s house and play the school-borrowed
instrument for hours. The woman’s two huge German shepherds would stop their
barking and whimpering when Ricky would serenade them most evenings. Even
Teresa, who had better grades, was a little envious. “How could such a bad
student be such a good clarinet player?” she would ask herself.

Weapon-Carrying students in High School Percentage of students grades 9-12 carrying a weapon in the past 30 days:

non-Latino whites

Latinos

male

28.6

29.5

female

1.4

3.6

source:
IUPLR

“¡Ricky,
ven a comer!” his mother would shout. And just like that, the beginner’s
level of Mozart’s clarinet concerto would stop abruptly and Ricky’s lanky
legs would carry him off. He would always try to eat with his mother and
sister. The father had been absent all of Ricky’s life and one of his
brothers had been in jail longer than Ricky could remember.
Teresa’s and the dogs’ ears, for that matter, would be left wanting for more
of those comforting clarinet sounds that momentarily
would almost cover up the barrio’s sounds: the fights, crying children, and
police car sirens.

Suddenly
one day, no one heard Ricky play again, nor did anyone see him running to and
from home. Rumor had it that he had been in a fight with some teenage drug
dealers. A shot in the back confined him to a wheel chair the rest of his
life. No one in the barrio was ever willing to testify as to who had shot
him. Ricky had become very depressed and did not want anyone seeing him in a
wheelchair. He dropped out of school and refused to receive any special
tutoring or to go to a special school.

If
Ricky’s tragic story were a rare exception in the Latino community, it would
be easier to walk away. Ricky was a victim of circumstances. His mother
worked hard to make ends meet. He was left alone and unsupervised too
frequently.

Unfortunately,
examples of other Rickys abound in the Hispanic community. Many Latino
students come from broken homes or homes where parents are working endless
hours to make ends meet. They are seldom home when classes end in the afternoon.
And they are left unsupervised for long and dangerous hours from 3 to 6
p.m., when many teen
crimes are committed.

By the
time parents, counselors or teachers realize that the students are falling
behind or are in trouble, it is almost impossible to steer them back onto the
right course.

When
students have a lot of unsupervised free time, they fall easily into
temptations that can ensnare children and teenagers forever. Some turn to
drugs for the seemingly easy money or because of peer pressure. Others get
mired in violence due to drugs or because that is what they see at home. And
still others get pregnant because of lack of sex education or because they
want to have children in the hopes of receiving unconditional love.

One of
the biggest problems that influence young Latino students to drop out of
school is their involvement in taking or selling drugs or facilitating deals
for drug dealers.

According
to Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR), a nationwide
research organization, 15 percent of Latino eighth graders had used illicit
drugs in the 30 days prior to being interviewed. By 12th grade, 27 percent of
Latino students had used drugs.

Violence
often follows. It is often drug-related activities, and is not limited to the
neighborhood where the teens live. Teresa, a petite and bookish girl,
remembers riding the same school bus that Ricky used to ride to the nearby
junior high school. One day, through a cloud of marijuana smoke, she saw that
two teenagers were fighting each other; some later said it was over drugs,
others said it was due to jealousy over a girl. When the bus arrived at the
school, a group of kids fell out the door, some fighting and others just
egging on the fighters. Eventually, principals, teachers and older boys
disbanded the mob.

Community Involvement

Eva
Maldonado is not only a vibrant and energetic woman, president of the Stamford, Connecticut, Chamber of Commerce and a
policewoman. She is also a dedicated member of the Latino community who
spends a lot of her time trying to rescue at-risk Hispanic teens. Through
her work as a police officer and as a civic volunteer, she sees first-hand
the many problems besieging Latino youth. Teen pregnancies and drug-related
violence are the two top enemies of any attempt to try to improve the
education of young Hispanics.

“The
problems that I encounter are separated by gender,” says Maldonado. “For
example, the girls are involved in unprotected sex (which is another
problem in itself), and they are getting pregnant at an earlier age.” When
she speaks to young Hispanic girls, Maldonado gets the sense that “they are
having sex just to be accepted.” Many do not quite understand the enormous
responsibility of a baby, and often times once the baby arrives there is an
end to any thought about school. “The boys then behave like they are on the
track team,” she says. “They run far away from their responsibility, yet go
to another girl; and the pattern continues.”

Maldonado
also gets to see first-hand how many Latino boys are involved in drugs and
violence. “They often start with a little drinking then proceed with
smoking marijuana. They always think that they are in control … that they
could always function.” However, these small problems usually lead to other
bigger problems such as dropping out, crimes and violence.

Maldonado’s
experiences have led her to support two community organizations that try to
rescue young Latinos. One organization is called SAVE (Students Against
Violence Everywhere). The organization tries to set up peer mediators who
then try to get the teens to work out their problems on their own. “The No.
1 complaint of young people is that no one understands them,” observes
Maldonado. “By allowing them to speak out on issues that they believe to be
true, they become stronger and get confidence in dealing with their
problems. “Maldonado encourages positive “peer to peer empowerment.”

The
group has been successful because Latino youth are involved in a “hands-on
manner.” Maldonado has found that the students “are harder on themselves
when they fail.”

The
second organization is RAICES. This group was formed by young people with a
clear and defined objective: undertaking community service projects in
which Latino culture is the focus. “Our current project is to create a
directory of Quién es Quién (Who’s Who) [for the Hispanic community]. In
our community there are many hidden treasures,” Maldonado adds.

RAICES
also tries to teach skills such as writing, photographing, interviewing,
and some selling and marketing. Maldonado says that RAICES also helps
teenagers “uncover role models and be encouraged by the struggles” of
others like them who have been successful. “The ultimate objective is to
have these hidden treasures give back to our young people,” Maldonado says.
“The success of the project depends on the entire community. “

On the
pavement lay a teenage boy. His enormous dark eyes seemed to want to escape
from his chiseled, high-cheekbone face. His chest was heaving frantically as
if he wanted by the force of his will to extricate the knife sticking out of
his body. His pristine white T-shirt became red all too quickly. By the time
an ambulance arrived, his chest had stopped moving and his eyes were closed
as if simply taking a respite from the horrors of that morning. Teresa got
out of the bus, stunned, “not knowing whether this was real or a grade B
television show.” Teachers frantically pulled everyone away, hoping that this
could somehow help the students forget this scene. Unfortunately, for many it
would not be the last.

According
to IUPLR in the same survey, almost 30 percent of Latino males carried some
kind of weapon in the 30 days before being interviewed, a figure very close
to white male students; Latina female students were twice as likely to carry
weapons as their Caucasian female peers.

As if
drugs and violence were not enough danger to teenagers, other seductions lurk
in the barrios and schools. Sitting in a wheelchair gave Ricky plenty of time
to sit and watch the comings and goings of his neighbors in this ironically
named barrio, La Colonia Hermosa (Beautiful Neighborhood). He saw many of the
other problems that Latino teens encounter. Next door to him lived the
Garcías, whose three-bedroom brick house was the best house, the mansion of
the neighborhood. Mrs. García ran a brothel near the Mexican border, while
the husband trafficked in drugs and contraband. Police arrested him and,
while out on parole, he fled to Mexico and now cannot return to the United States. The couple’s children had very independent lives. Two
dropped out of school before they even reached high school. They were married
and divorced by 18 and left their young junior high school dropout wives to
raise their children.

Ricky
would also talk to another neighbor, Socorro, a 50-year-old toothless and
tired woman who had three children from three different fathers. Her eldest
girl, Linda, became pregnant at 13. After Socorro finished beating her up,
she went to school to pick up her belongings and never returned. By the time
she was 18, Linda also had three children with three different men.

Linda
tried to work as a waitress, but she was often fired because she had to miss
work to take care of her kids if they were sick or if she could not find a
relative to care for them. Linda’s younger sisters, who already had two
children each, were on welfare and spent most of their time in unemployment
lines. Their young children often were left unsupervised. Conditions were
ripe for the vicious cycle to continue. The children of unwed mothers grow up
to become unwed mothers themselves. They then drop out of school as teens.
For them, life will be full of menial jobs and poor pay, and they will have
little time to care for their own children.

According
to the National Latina Institute of Reproductive Health, in many Latino communities
teenage pregnancies have as their root the belief that “motherhood is the
biggest goal a woman can aspire to.” Their life is filled with a feeling of
loneliness and despair. Few get sex education classes. Three out of every
five Latina girls become pregnant at least
once during their teen years. The rate is 50 percent higher than the national
average. And because Latinas are less likely to have abortions, the birth
rate among them is now higher than that of African-American and white women.

Schools
are left with the de facto responsibility of serving as surrogate parents,
counselors, therapists, and of course as disciplinarians. John Cavazos,
director of student support services in the McAllen, Texas, IndependentSchool
District, explains
that “disciplining students is not an easy task and finding the qualified
personnel to do so is a challenge.” His truant officers “have to be trained
in education, criminal justice, psychology and social science.” In areas
where many of the kids they encounter either use or sell drugs or are in one
way or another working with drug dealers, truant officers must be trained to
face all types of problems. These are the issues that first lead to truancy
and then to students dropping out of school.

All these
problems explain why Latinos still have dropout rates that are consistently
2.5 times higher than those of African Americans and almost 4 times those of
white non-Latinos.

Even before Ricky’s dolce clarinet tones had ceased, there
was little beauty in La Colonia Hermosa. There is even less beauty in knowing
that many Latino kids live in neighborhoods like that—or worse.

Corporate
Involvement

Trying
to resolve the education crisis amongst Hispanics is not just for educators
or government agencies.

Companies
from different sectors and of different sizes are also involved. One
example is Washington, D.C.-based public relations company Widmeyer
Communications. The company manages several national education,
anti-bullying, and minority outreach campaigns. Cristina Miranda, for
example, works with the Partnership for Reading consortium of organizations
that includes the U.S. Department of Education, The National Institute for
Literacy, National Child Health and Human Development, and U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services.

She has
developed research to help teach Hispanics how to read, from infancy to
adulthood. Another part of her efforts include a campaign designed to stop
bullies from imposing their will by force in the schools. Schools must
provide a safe environment in order for teens to learn.
Jason Smith, also of Widmeyer Communications, is working with the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services on a National Media Campaign. The
goal is to develop messages encouraging healthy lifestyles for youth aged
9-13. It will focus on health and fitness, underage alcohol use, media
literacy (helping youth to understand that not everything that they read in
or hear from the media encourages healthy living), and how to avoid
violence.

According
to Smith, the “media is paying a lot of attention to bullying and the
National Media Campaign will focus on adults as well as health workers.”
The initiative will focus on Latino students. Widmeyer’s work with Hispanic
students found that bullying patterns among Latinos are not different from
those of the general population. Males tend to conduct physical bullying,
while girls tend to use rumors or exclusionary behavior as their
instruments of bullying other girls.

“Adults
will be critical for the anti-bullying campaign,” Smith emphasizes. In
conjunction with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Widmeyer
will work on having Spanish language information distributed through the
Web, and importantly through partnerships with existing non-profit organizations
that cater to Latinos. Hispanic teens will also be reached through building
superintendents, pediatrician offices and faith-based entities.

Gonzalo
Mario and Aurora Rodríguez always encouraged their five children to go to the
university. “If you don’t go to college, you will end up killing yourself for
minimum wage,” was always their mantra. Three of the five children listened.
Rommel has a bachelor of arts in music; Teresa also obtained a B.A., as well
as two masters from Ivy League universities; and Lorena obtained a B.A. and
an M.B.A.

Celina
took a few college courses. Ruby did too, as well as a stint in the U.S.
Navy. Neither, however, finished college. The Rodríguez family, a southern
Texas Mexican American family, typifies many of the choices that Hispanic
students face when they graduate from high school: They can enter the work
force directly.

Enroll in
the military. Enter a technical or vocational school. Go to junior college or
into a four-year university program. It is a difficult choice to make, and
many education experts agree that many Latino students face another large
obstacle: Few believe that that they can control their destiny.

While
Latinos are entering college at a comparable rate to non-Hispanic whites and
to African Americans, only about 16 percent of Latino high school graduates
ages 25 to 29 had earned at least a bachelor’s degree by 2001. Scholars agree
the challenge is not only to get high school students to enroll in college,
but to increase their graduation rate. Few education scholars have focused on
the college graduation rate of Hispanics. Most have done work on primary
education and high school dropout rates.

As baby
boomers retire from the labor force between now and 2025, the number of
working non-Hispanic whites will decline by five million. The U.S. Census
Bureau forecasts that the number of working-age Latinos will grow by 18
million. Experts say it is not hard to predict that the jobs Hispanics get in
the future will depend upon the education and training they receive today.

Some of
the problems can be traced to lack of adequate funding.

Eduardo
Padrón, president of Miami-DadeCommunity College and a leading Hispanic educator, believes that
“the steady erosion of need-based financial aid is a national trend that has
a significant impact on low-income Hispanics and other minorities. Last year,
in Florida, $140 million was devoted to merit-based aid, which has been shown
ultimately to favor the middle class; by contrast, only roughly $40 million
was allocated to need-based aid,” he added.

Lack of
money to pursue college, vocational, or technical training is one of the main
reasons why most Hispanics are forced to work after high school, or to attend
school on a part-time basis.

At the
Rodríguez household, in McAllen, Texas, they talk about the importance
of role models and proper counseling in getting more Hispanics into college.
Lorena, one of the daughters who graduated from college, credits a high
school counselor and her family for her achievements. “I had a wonderful
counselor at McAllenMemorialHigh
School named
Virginia Lindville. I can’t give her enough credit for her support during
difficult times. She really encouraged me to do well in high school and go to
college. My parents and oldest sister were also very pro-education and
counseled me to go to college.”

Not all
are that lucky. Even with good counseling and family support, some fall
through the cracks. Celina Rodríguez, who lives in Austin, Texas, and Ruby, who is in St. Helen, Michigan, are two who do not have
university degrees. Celina recalls that she “didn’t know how to listen to
reason.” She believes that “both parents continued to try to guide me into a
better life through discipline and education” but “... it fell on deaf ears.”
Ruby remarked that she took college preparatory courses in high school and
that she received excellent counseling in high school. She “attended college
right after high school” and then realized that she “lacked the discipline to
stay there.” She “joined the Navy instead.” By the time she had finished her
tour of duty, she was married, had kids, and never went back to college. The
number of Latinos enrolled in postsecondary education is actually high, according
to Richard Fry, senior research associate at PewHispanicCenter. His study, ‘‘Latinos in Higher Education: Many Enroll,
Too Few Graduate,” shows that “by some measures, a greater share of Latinos
are attending college classes than non-Hispanic whites. However, most are
pursuing paths associated with lower chances of attaining a bachelor’s
degree.” Fry found that many Latinos “are enrolled in community colleges,
many also only attend school part-time, and others delay or prolong their
college education into their mid-20s and beyond.”

Part-Time
Latinos are more likely than students of other ethnicities to be part-time
students. Nearly 85 percent of white non-Hispanic 18- to 24-year-old college
students are enrolled full-time, compared to 75 percent of Latino students in
that age group. The U.S. Department of Education considers part-time college
enrollment to be a “risk factor” for dropping out before completing a degree.
In the most recent DOE study, researchers followed a group of university part-time
students for three years after initial enrollment and found that, after three
years, one quarter of the students who initially attended full-time had no
degree and were no longer enrolled.

Among
students who initially attended part-time, nearly half had no degree after
three years and had dropped out. The DOE report found that, “no matter what
postsecondary course of study a college student is pursuing, and regardless
of whether it is at a two-year or a four-year institution, part-time college
enrollment is associated with a greater risk of racking up college credits
with no degree to show for the effort.”

Two-year colleges
Hispanics are far more likely to be enrolled in two-year colleges than any
other group. This includes technical and vocational schools such as nursing,
dental hygiene, etc. About 40 percent of Latino 18- to 24-year-old college
students attend two-year institutions compared to about 25 percent of
non-Hispanic white and African American students in that age group.
Traditional college-age Latinos are not the only ones to rely on two-year
schools. Latino college students over the age of 24 years old, also, are more
likely than their peers of any other racial/ethnic group to be enrolled at
two-year institutions.

According
to Fry, “the percentage of Hispanic students who attend two-year schools
grows as the students get older. More than 55 percent of Latino
undergraduates over the age of 35 years old attend two-year colleges.”
Attachment to family and community as well as economic need appear to be
factors in Latinos’ exceptionally high rate of enrollment in two-year
colleges.

There are
benefits to two-year community colleges. According to Padrón, community
colleges can provide “a truly outstanding opportunity for Hispanics—as well
as others—who might otherwise be excluded from higher education, not for want
of individual drive, but for want of finance. Rather than being relegated to
low-skill, low-wage jobs, community colleges offer such students the occasion
to pursue worthwhile careers. “

Padrón
enumerates specific advantages to community colleges. “On entering, students
who require assistance in bridging the gap between high school and college
are given a strong preparatory foundation on which to build.
Students—Hispanics and non-Hispanics—are given excellent training that is
effectively targeted at existing and expanding job markets. They are offered
schedules that are more flexible, in a setting that is more in tune with the
various responsibilities they shoulder, at considerably lower cost. Often,
class sizes at community colleges are smaller, giving the student more
individualized attention. Finally, many community colleges have honors
programs as demanding as the strongest academic programs in the nation.”
Also, community colleges often have agreements in place to help students at
community colleges to attend four-year universities.

Fry’s Pew
findings show that large numbers of Latinos try to extend their education
beyond part-time or community colleges, but still fall short of earning a
university degree. According to The National Center on Education Statistics,
despite benefits at two-year colleges, Latinos’ predilection for these
schools may adversely affect Latinos’ chances of finishing with a degree.
Agreeing with this assessment is the recent U.S. Department of Education
report that suggests that Latino students are more likely to drop out if they
begin their college studies at two-year colleges.

University completions rates
Almost 36 percent of white non-Hispanic high school graduates ages 25 to 29
earned at least a bachelor’s degree by 2001, compared with 20.6 percent of
African Americans and only 16.4 percent of Hispanics. Students drop out for
many reasons. Padrón cites “inadequate preparation for the transition from
high school to college. Nationally, about 50 percent of incoming students
require remedial training in basic skills such as math, reading and
composition.” Also, “the pressures that students experienced in the K-12
system do not disappear upon entry into college.” Moreover, there are
cultural expectations. Latinos are often “expected to stay near the family.”

Often,
students find the adjustment from high school to college a difficult one to
make. Lorena Rodríguez, one who graduated, admits that in college “the main difficulty
was adjusting to a different environment far away from home. I missed my
family and friends. I also had difficulty imposing discipline on myself and
was caught up in the ‘fun’ side of college.”

Undeniably,
Latinos also lag behind in the pursuit of graduate and professional degrees.
Among 25- to 34-year-old high school graduates, approximately 4 percent of
non-Hispanic whites are enrolled in graduate school. Only slightly less than
2 percent of similarly aged Latino high school graduates are pursuing
post-baccalaureate studies. Only individuals with at least a college degree
can hope to enter the mid-ranges of the labor force, much less of attaining
anything higher.

Breaking the Cycle
Education experts fear that children of Hispanics who do not have a college
degree are likely to perpetuate the cycle. Yet some do learn from their
mistakes. Celina sees the economic benefits of obtaining a university degree.
If she were to have children she would say: “Learn from my mistakes. Obtain a
degree because, whether you use what you learn in school or not, the fact
that you endured those years of college and obtained that piece of paper
seems to mean the world of difference when it comes to prosperity.” Her
sister, Ruby, a mother of two pre-teen daughters, has also learned from the
fact that she chose not to go to college.

“I have
regrets about not acquiring a college degree,” she says. “ I encourage my
children regularly to do well in school and eventually get a higher
education.”

Lorena,
who has a B.A. and M.B.A. from St. Edward’s University, says that she would
tell her kids and nieces and nephews “that going to college is the best
decision for any high school student to make. College is more than English
and history. It’s about opening your mind to other worlds. It’s an amazing
experience in and of itself.”

Lack of
resources often is the cause why many Latinos do not go to college. Some
organizations, such as The Hispanic Scholarship Fund (www.hsf.net), a
non-profit headquartered in San Francisco, help students with funding. HSF has dedicated itself
since the 1970s to the goal of doubling the number of Latinos graduating
from universities. HSF has expanded its operations in southern and central California, the Northeast, Southwest and Midwest to provide the Latino community
more college scholarships and educational outreach support. During its
27-year history, HSF has awarded more than 54,000 scholarships in excess of
$89 million to Hispanics from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; these students have
attended more than 1,300 colleges and universities.

As
Sarah Tucker-Martínez, HSF’s president, explains, “We work at getting
families to support the desire to go to college. At our meetings, families
bring not only the college-age kid but also other younger children. Even if
they are wandering around or crawling, they too are hearing the message
about the need to go to college.”

HSF
works at encouraging students to attend college and obtain the monies they
need to enter and stay in college. According to Tucker-Martínez, HSF has
mentor programs with “a message about the importance of college—that
college will better people’s lives. We cannot accomplish HSF’s goals if we
cannot get students to stay in college.”

While
recent studies show that Latin students have made big strides in narrowing
the education gap, they continue to lag behind their non-Hispanic white peers
in nearly every achievement indicator. Indeed, with Hispanic Americans
expected to comprise 17 percent of the U.S. population by 2015, experts say it’s critical to begin closing this
gap now—otherwise it could leave a dent in every American’s pocket.

“Unless
we see a dramatic increase in educational attainment—particularly college
completion—we’re going to see a dramatic negative impact on the economy,
especially in states with large Hispanic populations,” says Leslie Sanchez,
executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence
for Hispanic Americans.

“This is
not just a problem for the parent or school, it’s in everyone’s interest.”

A
continuing disparity in Hispanic educational achievement could impact
everything from our tax revenues to community outreach, shrinking the pool of
skilled labor force and thereby reducing the nation’s middle class. Such a
learning divide would also lead to lower consumer spending, reduced savings
and higher social costs. While a recent Pew Hispanic Center study found that
Hispanic immigrants have started catching up to native-born
Americans—doubling their high school completion rate since 1970 to 41 percent
in 2000—Hispanic students who were born abroad continue to be plagued by the
highest high school dropout rate and a significantly lower college graduation
rate. That’s a critical statistic, since Hispanic immigrants make up the
largest group of all foreign-born residents, and represent 40 percent of
Hispanic Americans.

Today,
according to the NationalCenter for Education Statistics, 30 percent of all Hispanic
students drop out of high school, four times the rate of non-Hispanic whites.
And only about 17 percent of Hispanic students hold a higher education degree,
compared to 47 percent of non-Hispanics. The problem is attributed to
everything from poor English skills and ill-prepared teachers to insufficient
parental education and poverty.

The
figures are particularly troubling because Latins are the nation’s largest
and fastest-growing minority, and more than a third are under age 18. When
you consider that Hispanic youth perform below their non-Hispanic white
classmates in areas that are widely considered necessary to succeed—math,
reading and science—some would call this under-achievement a crisis.

The numbers tell the
story
Recently, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, the largest Hispanic scholarship
organization, sponsored an independent study to determine what would happen
if the Hispanic college graduation rate doubled by 2010. The results were
staggering. Not only would it increase public revenues by a whopping $13
billion, but it would also boost consumer spending by roughly $14 billion.

“You’d
have more people contributing tax dollars and less people requiring social
welfare programs such as food stamps,” explains Sara Martinez Tucker, HSF
president. “And the business sector would benefit a great deal because they’d
see an increased rate of Latinos buying their products.”

Researchers
in Texas—home of one of the largest
Hispanic communities in the country—came to a similar conclusion. They found
that if college graduation rates for Latin students in Texas remained low, by 2030 the average
household in that state would be $4,000 poorer than it was in 1990.

“This
would lead to a 3 percent increase in the poverty rate,” says Dr. Steve
Murdock, a state demographer who was part of a study dubbed Closing the Gaps
by 2015. Moreover, Murdock and researchers at the Texas Higher Education
Coordinating Board determined that closing the education gaps completely by
2040 would increase Texas’ aggregate income by more than
$300 billion annually.

That
education affects consumer spending, and therefore the economy, is nothing
new. Researchers have long known that an educated populace equals more buying
power. “We know that if you increase educational level, you’re likely to
increase income and as a result, you strengthen [spending] and the
marketplace,” Murdock says. Hispanic purchasing power already exceeds $580
billion.

Let’s not
forget the benefits Hispanic individuals would reap from a better education.
Research from the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) shows that as many as
one-third of low-income Hispanics would be lifted out of poverty if Hispanic
and non-Hispanic students had equal educational outcomes. Latin students who
earn bachelor’s degrees would make between $400,000 and $500,000 more over
their lifetime, says NCLR.

Why the gap?Educators
say that one of the reasons Latin students under-perform in school is because
many immigrant or poor parents never completed high school themselves.
Because two out of three Hispanic children live in families where neither
parent has a high school diploma, many Latin children are raised not
believing they will attend college, says Sanchez, of the White House
Initiative.

“They
grow up without a role model for college,” she says. The problem is
confounded by parents’ poor English skills. Some may not speak English
proficiently so they have difficulty navigating their way through college
information.

The Bush
administration recently attempted to ease this problem by creating a
bilingual website—Yosipuedo.gov (or YesIcan.gov in English)—to help Latin
families prepare their children for pre-kindergarten through post-secondary
education, and encourage young students to move on to college. The site
contains everything from reading assistance to college funding sources.

The move
is applauded by Linda Chavez, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity,
a conservative think tank, who believes that lack of money is not the real
root of the education gap.

While
it’s true that scarce financial resources contribute, the bigger problem lies
in inherent cultural values, she says. “Hispanics have an extremely strong
work ethic, but that works against them in higher education,” Chavez argues.
“The push is toward contributing to the household earnings instead of
obtaining a higher education.

ontributing
to the family welfare has traditionally been the way immigrants have
succeeded.” The real solution, she says, is encouraging Hispanic parents to
send their children off to a college or university.

But
others say socioeconomic factors are mostly to blame; they want the
government to put more money and resources into the problem. Sonia Perez, NCLR’s
deputy vice president for research, points out that many Hispanic children
attend schools in low-income neighborhoods—schools that lack the best
teachers. “Latino children tend to be in classes where teachers aren’t
well-trained and the classes are overcrowded,” she says. “We need to give the
same thing to Latino children that we expect an average middle-class child in
the United States to receive. The fact is, this is
not occurring right now.” Some educators have suggested that the most
effective way to narrow the gap is to ensure Latin children get a head start
on school so they can cement their reading skills early on. NCES figures show
that Latin children have the lowest enrollment in early childhood development
programs. Much of their low educational achievement, experts say, stems from
an inadequate beginning in school, especially in reading. Says NCLR’s Perez:
“We need to look at where there are educational disparities in earlier
years.”

President
Bush’s comprehensive No Child Left Behind legislation addresses the “reading
readiness” of pre-school age kids in poor neighborhoods, among other areas of
need. Signed into law in January 2001, it requires states to make sure that
within a dozen years, all students in grades three through eight meet standards
in reading and math. Limited English proficient (LEP) children, migrant and
low-income children must be included in the states’ assessments.

And in
what some believe will ensure Hispanic students aren’t left behind, schools
will now have to separate test results by educational area, including LEP
students. States are also required to develop benchmarks and assessments to
measure the progress of LEP and immigrant students in learning English and
meeting other academic standards.

Greater choice
No Child Left Behind also requires school districts to give parents the
option of switching their child to another public school if the one he or she
is attending is an under-performing school—the law’s most controversial
mandate because it involves the oft-debated issue of school choice.

A 2002
study by Harvard University, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. and the University of Wisconsin concluded that giving parents
scholarship or tax money to send their children to parochial and other
private schools yields impressive results, especially for low-income
students. Indeed, there’s strong support for school choice among low-income
parents, especially Hispanics; a 2001 poll of Latin adults conducted for the
Republican-leaning Latino Coalition found 73 percent agreeing that “the
government should provide taxpayer funded vouchers to help low-income
families send their children to a better public, private, or church-run
school.”

Still,
while the Supreme Court has given its blessing to vouchers, many states have
provisions barring tax dollars from going to religious schools and there’s a
lack of consensus on the best approach—if any—to taxpayer-financed
educational choice.

So far,
only three states offer publicly sponsored, comprehensive school choice
programs, only two have non-religious school choice, and nine offer public
school choice. The bright side for pro-educational choice advocates: There
are 79 private-sector scholarship programs that provide school options to
60,000 children and their parents; and 38 states permit the establishment of
charter schools—independent public schools designed and operated by
educators, parents, community leaders and others—according to the Center for
Education Reform.

An English-language
trend?Another
perennial, if controversial, solution may lie in bilingual education,
although critics claim it slows students’ assimilation into mainstream
classes and overall acquisition of English-language skills. Interestingly,
some surveys of Hispanic American parents show that many support English-only
classes for their kids. That fact—and contradictory evidence concerning the
effectiveness of these programs —helped propel passage of California’s
Proposition 227 in 1998, which mandated immersion in English to speed
language development.

Parents in
Arizona and Massachusetts have since followed, passing
initiatives that replace bilingual education with English immersion programs.
A similar initiative in Colorado
failed in November, however. CEO’s Chavez and other bilingual education foes
say the evidence continues to mount that, with the proper support, students
learn best when they’re immersed in English-language classes. For the third
year in a row, Chavez notes, California’s
English learners—the term the state uses to describe children who enter school
with limited proficiency in English—have improved their scores at a higher
rate than their peers.

Maria
Hernandez Ferrier, director of the Education Department’s Office of English
Language Acquisition, counters that while “you absolutely need to be able to
speak English to do well academically … at the same time we understand the
importance of speaking more than one language.”

She
points out that No Child Left Behind allows English-language learners to take
English improvement tests in their native tongue for the first three years of
living in the United
States. After that,
they take the assessment in English. But if the teacher determines that the
child still has not acquired enough English, they can obtain a waiver to take
the exam in their native language.

Financial keys
The HSF’s Martinez Tucker says it’s also important for businesses, charities
and others to provide greater scholarship opportunities for Latin students.
“Money is the No. 1 reason Latino youth drop out of school,” she contends,
adding that community leaders also need to come up with incentives to help
Hispanic youth transfer from community colleges to four-year institutions.
Latin students disproportionately attend community colleges, rather than
four-year universities.

Businesses,
government, teachers, citizens—everyone should play a role in closing the
education gap, says NCLR’s Perez. And many possible solutions need to be
explored with vigor.

“It’s in
all of our interests to make sure our future workforce receives a good
education,” she says. “Not doing so could affect all of our pockets.”

Those who
oppose the way in which the University
of Michigan admits students say that racial
preferences or quotas are unfair, unconstitutional and “perpetuate our
divisions,” as President Bush recently put it. That is why they have taken
their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Those who
support the University of Michigan admissions policies favor the use
of Affirmative Action programs to promote diversity. They are believers in
the benefits of a multi-ethnic, multi-color student body for the university,
its
students, and society as a whole.

The one
thing both sides agree on is the importance raised by the two cases, Gratz
and Grutter vs. the University of Michigan’s undergraduate and law schools,
respectively. The Supreme Court will decide whether prospective students may
receive preferential treatment based on ethnicity or race—in other words:
whether the university can maintain its Affirmative Action policy.

But it is
much more. This is the first time in 25 years that the Court will address the
constitutionality of Affirmative Action in higher education admissions. Its
decision will determine the legality of Affirmative Action at universities
across the country and influence efforts to bring greater diversity to those
campuses.

The case
targets the university’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts admission
criteria, which are based on a 150-point system that awards students points
for certain accomplishments and/or characteristics. In it, underrepresented
minorities receive 20 extra points toward their total admissions evaluation,
whereas a perfect SAT score only adds 12 points, as critics are quick to
point out. But Thomas Sáenz, vice president of litigation at the Mexican
American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), defends the system,
arguing that Affirmative Action is essential, because “there are still
tremendous inequalities in our nation’s high schools and middle schools.
Affirmative Action permits colleges to recognize that Latinos and other
minorities often have great potential to succeed—but unequal opportunity has
limited their traditional credentials.”

Most
universities, he says, use standardized test scores and preferences for
children of alumni—criteria that “have a demonstrated racial bias against
minorities, and [which] have little or no connection to likelihood of success
in college.” Sáenz believes that so long as such biased criteria are used,
Affirmative Action is a necessary adjustment mechanism.

The University of Michigan and those who defend its
admission policies argue its selection process does not use quotas, as
opponents charge. Further, Foster Maer, acting legal director of the Puerto
Rican Legal and Education Defense Fund (PRLEDF) maintains that “the Bush
administration is misstating the issue before the Court. The Michigan case is not about quotas, nor
does the application process exclude anyone. By casting it in these terms,
the Bush administration is being disingenuous and divisive. Michigan’s system is not impossible to
administer. Hundreds, if not thousands, of colleges and universities in the U.S. use formulas like the Michigan one, with many variations. There
is no magic formula.”

Theirs is
a view backed by numerous civil rights organizations that have filed amicus
briefs on behalf of the university. They include the New Mexico Hispanic Bar
Association, the Black Lawyers Association and the Indian Bar Association.

On the
other side, Linda Chávez, president of The Center for Equal Opportunity, a
non-profit research and educational organization in Virginia, says that she hopes the Supreme
Court uses the Michigan Grutter and Gratz cases to ban the use of racial and
ethnic preferences in university admissions. She believes such a ban “is
essential for the continued progress of racial relations in the United States. If preferences are ended, all
races will win. If they aren’t, we will all lose ... African Americans and
Latinos are now being told that they cannot be expected to succeed unless
they are held to a lower standard than whites and Asians. That is insulting,
and undermines the mutual respect that is essential in an increasingly
multiethnic, multiracial America.”

U.S.
Secretary of Education Rod Paige agrees: “Admissions quotas and double
standards are not the answer,” he said recently at a NationalCenter for Educational Accountability conference. He believes
that “fixing the problem at the front end, where it can do the most good, is
the answer.” The goal of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, he says,
is to transform American education “from a system that does a good job
educating some children to a system that does a good job educating all
children, from all walks of life.”
On one point, both sides of the Affirmative Action debate agree: Diversity at
the college level is a good thing. “Americans overwhelmingly agree that
diversity in our schools, neighborhoods, workplaces and community
organizations is enormously positive,” says Gerald Reynolds, assistant
secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education.

Still,
the Bush administration argues that alternatives to existing affirmative
action programs must be developed. “Policies granting preferences on the
basis of race and ethnicity raise constitutional questions and are
increasingly being overturned in the courts,” Reynolds says. Further, “voters
in various jurisdictions have passed state and local initiatives restricting
the use of racial preferences. These legal and policy trends mean that we
must work together to look for new solutions.”

Maer
disagrees. “The Supreme Court has already held that race can be a legitimate
consideration in admissions policies in its decision on Bakke v. University of California in the 1970s.”

According
to the U.S. Department of Education’s report on this issue, Race-Neutral
Alternatives in Postseconday Education: Innovative Approaches to Diversity,
some higher education institutions are finding ways to provide equal access
without resorting to racial preferences. “Many colleges and universities are
investing in nearby elementary and secondary schools, [recognizing] that
helping to better educate young people who attend traditionally
low-performing schools will broaden the pool of students who can qualify for
admission to college.”

Professor
Margaret Montoya, of the University of New Mexico Law School, has a different
perspective. “There are no race-neutral alternatives. Only a limited use of
race-conscious criteria will result in racially diverse student bodies in
colleges and universities,” she maintains.
A decision from the Supreme Court is expected this fall. Just what the court
will say is difficult to predict. “Everyone generally believes that four
justices will vote to support the continued consideration of race in
admissions, while four other justices are generally believed to take the
opposite view,” says Sáenz.

“The
swing justice is Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Her vote will likely determine
the outcome.”

Recent
U.S. Census Bureau data confirms that education pays
off. According to a recent Census Bureau study, full-time
workers who hold degrees in law, medicine or business make
about $110,000 a year; those who have a bachelors
degree make $52,000; those who graduated from high school
earn $30,000; and those who dropped out make $23,000if
that. Only 65 percent of high school drop-outs have full-time
jobs.

A case
in point is Isabel Rodríguez, who was 11 years old
when she left Cuba to come to the United States. She was
alone. Her parents were unable to join her for two years.
Even when they came, the family was not together for long:
Her father died two years after he arrived; her mother died
two years later.

Rodríguez
was 17 and alone, except for her older brothers. I
went on automatic and moved aheadnot much else I could
do, except take advantage of the opportunities that
came up, she remembers.

A job
at the Catholic high school for girls she attended helped
her pay the tuition. Many nights, she worked as a baby-sitter
to earn extra cash. Later, financial aid enabled her
to attend Loyola University of the South in New Orleans.
Family members also pitched in.

I
was lucky that I had two older brothers and a very involved
sister-in-law, Rodríguez says.

Then
she met a coupleboth lawyersand they encouraged
her to apply to Tulane Law School. They paid for my
LSAT, had the application fee waived at Tulane and, when
I was accepted, offered me a home during the three years
of law school.

[There
was] only one condition: I was not to work during school
so that I could concentrate [on my studies].
Her experience highlights the benefits of a tight-knit Hispanic
family and the generosity of the people in the United States,
she says. Rodríguez became a successful lawyer and
now works as president of Fairfield Learning, LLC, in Connecticut.

And
shes not alone. Education has opened the path to a
better life for many. Along the way, most are supported
by family and/or businesses, community organizations and
the government. Educators say that all must work together
if Hispanic Americans are going to overcome high dropout
rates.

The
Presidents Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence
for Hispanic Americans recently completed an 18-month study
that arrived at similar conclusions. After speaking to 1,600
parents, educators, leaders of faith-based groups and business
people, the commission recommended steps such as setting
new and high expectations for Hispanic American children;
helping Latino parents better understand the U.S. educational
system; training teachers to meet the needs of students
with poor English-language skills; doing more educational
research; and improving the accountability and coordination
of educational programs within the federal government to
better serve Hispanic families.

The
commission found a number of significant problems that contribute
to the educational crisis. First, the problem begins at
home, it found. Its not the kids fault;
it is our fault and that of our teachers, administrators
and others. The kids can learn, says Charles García,
who is a member of the commission and sits on the Florida
State Board of Education.

Iris
Zucker, principal and founder of Marble Hill School for
International Studies in the Bronx, New York, believes the
way to solve the educational problem among Latinos
is to engage the parents in the education of their children.
But the Puerto Rican educator says Hispanic parents are
usually intimidated by the system.

María
Rodríguez, president of Vanguard Communications in
Washington, D.C., which is involved in several projects
to help children get a college education, can testify to
that.
My parents came from very humble beginnings,
she says. They grew up in rural villages in
northern Spain, raised
in houses without running water. Neither attended high school;
they worked the land.

Remembering
her school years, Rodríguez says her greatest obstacle
was that my parents couldnt help me with any
of my school work. Neither of them had finished high
school, but more importantly, neither of them spoke English.

In addition,
I didnt have many college-grad role models in
my life; most of my parents friends and family members
shared their type of background and education, she
says.
Her experience led her to conclude, as many educators have,
that providing role models for children at a young age is
essential. Its important for them to see that
people who walked in their shoes have succeeded.

Counselors
are also critical, says Virginia Valdez, director of the
Chicagoland Latino Educational Research Institute (CLERI)
at Aspira Inc. in Chicago. Her research suggests that counseling
services have a significant impact on whether students fall
through the cracks and drop out of school or successfully
graduate from high school and go on to college.

Valdez
studied counseling services at four high schools with large
Hispanic student bodies in Chicago and found that Hispanic
students met with their counselors far less often than did
their peers. Often, students dont understand the role
counselors play or are afraid of being seen as problem kids
if they speak to them, she says.

Reducing
class sizes and creating small, specialized schools are
another effective way to improve graduation rates, say educators.
Zucker has sought and obtained foundation monies from the
likes of Microsofts Bill Gates for her specialized
school, which offers a personalized approach to education.

She
is convinced that smaller classes and schools are more effective,
not only for students, but also for families. I see
the difference when parents are free to call or visit us.
It sends a different message to the child who, in turn,
becomes more responsive, she says.

As principal,
Zucker works closely with her teachers to design a global
curriculum for the 100 students who come from regions
as diverse as Latin America, Kosovo, Pakistan and western
Africa. Getting personal attention from the
facultymostly former Peace Corp volunteersgives
the kids a sense of pride in their school and encourages
them to dare to dream, she says.

Another
way to help children succeed and stay in school is to provide
after-school tutoring and training programs. One such effort
is led by KnowledgePoints, Inc. (www.knowledgepoints.org),
founded four years ago and implemented through strategic
associations with local sponsors and nonprofit organizations
such as the Boys and Girls Clubs and YMCAs. To date, 84
centers are operating in 23 states.

In Isabel
Rodríguezs tutoring program, instructors focus
on teaching children the basics, tailoring the program to
students needs. Teachers test the children and
tackle their specific needs.

We
find that childs level for each skill: He may be at
a certain grade level in phonics, but for example, his failure
to infer meaning from what he reads may put him at a lower
level in comprehension.

The
system builds self-esteem, she adds. Children start at a
level that they can easily master and move up as their abilities
improve. Further, tutors talk to parents at regular intervals
and encourage communication with the classroom teacher.

The
student cannot hide, she says. In an age of budget
cuts, companies such as Rodríguezs, educators,
non-profit organizations, corporate leaders and families
cant wait for the federal government to solve the
education problem, says García of the White House
Commission: They all need to take a more active role.

Hispanic
students also need to take advantage of the opportunities
that exist. When finances are a problem, for example, a
growing number of Hispanics are turning to the U.S. armed
forces as a way to serve their country and also receive
money for their college education.

According
to the Pentagon, about 8.7 percent of the total force is
Hispanic, or 122,500 soldiers, with nearly half being of
Mexican descent.

The
number of Hispanics in the military has increased dramatically
in recent years. Twenty years ago, only about 4 percent
of new recruits were Hispanic; today, that figure is 11
percent.

But
ultimately, says García, all education is local.
Last years passage of the No Child Left Behind law,
which introduced tests in reading and math for all students
in grades three through eight, among other educational reforms,
is an important step forward, he says. But the state
has to implement the program.

García
recalls visiting L.A.s schools after former Colorado
Governor Roy Romer became that districts superintendent.
In just 18 months, Latino children in that school district
had risen from the 32nd to the 66th percentile.

These
are often kids who come from poor families and who do not
speak English as a first language, he says. Romer
raised expectations and kids realized that they would be
judged by the standards for all other kids.

One
factor that should positively influence Hispanic educational
achievement in the future, some say, is the ongoing acculturation
of Latinos into mainstream American culture. The more that
Hispanics understand the American educational system and
the strong connection between remuneration and education,
the more likely they will be to strive for educational success.

Indeed,
understanding this reality might, in the long run, make
the biggest difference of all.